INTRODUCTION

Usually when It is a Chinese traditional recipe, I will check the background before I blogged. That is the reason why you always read the Wikipedia definition in my post. That provides a basis to support a cuisine background..But I have a huge difficulty to find basis to support the origin of this snack..

I have seen this special snack being shared by some Facebook pages which in turn took it form some blogger’s blog. Some claimed that it is their traditional granny recipe and there are many names to this snack especially in Malaysia.. – 灌肠糕， 光煎，广煎 etc.. When I read further, all the recipes are basically similar using peanuts, yam stripes, jicama stripes and some rice flour.. Taiwanese have another version called glutinous rice intestine 糯米肠. The ingredients are similar but it was not wrapped using bean curd sheets.

What it surprised me is that I can’t find any more information besides those provide by Singapore and Malaysian bloggers. Usually for traditional cuisines, it will be mentioned some where in China website though recipe may not be available. I seriously do not think that this is a local snack of which the Chinese ancestors in China do not prepare at all.

Further goggling with many Chinese letter probability, mix and match and I found this term “灌煎“ 。 That is the nearest that all I could get and it fits the description of the local bloggers except there is no glutinous rice being used. ..As per Baike:

”灌煎，是潮汕小吃之一。灌煎这一小吃的名称，据说是取自外形及烹制方法而得名的，因这一小吃制成后是一长卷形，而有些人在食用前也下锅略煎，故名为灌煎。灌煎里面包有糯米、虾米、五花肉碎、花生仁、芋丝、香菇丝等等配料，还要加入少许芹菜碎味精胡椒粉等调料。值得一提的是灌煎那层黄色而透明的皮，那是用腐皮制作而成的，把搅拌均匀的糯米饭放在腐皮上卷成条状长卷，放到蒸笼上蒸一蒸，香喷喷的灌煎就可出炉了。如果你想要吃到比较香脆烫口的灌煎，那可以把灌煎切成小块，放入锅中煎炸。因为糯米饭有粘质，加上配料后卷起来不会散，所以潮汕人制作的卷煎是一定要用糯米的。而且糯米含有蛋白质，营养成分丰富，所以说，潮汕人独制的灌煎，是相当具有营养价值的小吃。潮汕的灌煎，沾上独制的甜酱油蘸汁，灌煎的香味与甜酱油相融合，形成独一无二的潮汕风味。（Source： http://baike.baidu.com/view/9097082.htm）

To summarize the description, Guan Jian is a Teochew Shantou  snack. The name was obtained from its method of cooking meaning shallow frying.  The main ingredients are glutinous rice, baby shrimps, minced meat, shredded yam, peanuts, shitake mushrooms and etc. You can either steamed and served or before serving, pan fried again until crispy on the exterior. The yellowish exterior was prepared using bean curd sheets and it has a nice shape because glutinous rice is sticky and after adding various material, it will not disintegrate. Therefore, the guan jian prepared by Chaozhou must include glutinous rice and because glutinous rice have high protein and nutritional contents, Chaozhou style of guan jian is a nutritious snack. It was served with special homemade sweet soya sauce.

Based on the above definition, in order to double confirm my understanding,  i performed an image search for the term and it come out as in the picture above.

Based on the literal definition and the image of the snack, I have design this recipe which is different from other version for my blog records. What is shown in this illustration is the vegetarian version. To transform it to non vegetarian version, just add some garlics, minced meat and dry prawns. Others remain the same.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 3-4 adult servings

• 1 cup of glutinous rice
• 1.5 cups of water
• 1/2 cup of peanuts
• 1 cup of shredded yam
• 2-3 sprigs of Chinese celery or coriander stalks
• 1/4 teaspoon of five spice powder
• 2 sheets of bean curd sheets
• 5 soaked shitake mushrooms
• 5 water chestnuts (optional)
• 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
• Extra seasoning to taste (mushroom concentrate)
• Pinches of salt
• Dashes of white pepper

For non vegetarian version, add:

• 1/2 tablespoon of minced garlics
• Some minced meat
• 1 tablespoon of soaked dry shrimps

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Wash the glutinous rice., cut/chopped the yam, shitake mushrooms, celery stalks until small pieces.

• In a frying pan, put some cooking oil, add the minced garlic, and/or shitake mushrooms. Add the dry shrimps and sauté until fragrant. Add the washed rice, stir fry until well mixed, add the white pepper, seasonings, salt , shredded yam, shredded stalks and stir fry until well combined. Take some to taste and adjust the seasoning accordingly. Off the heat and transfer the rice to the rice cooker. Add 1.5 cups of water and use the rice cooker “sticky rice” function to cook for one cycle..

• Once it cooked, fluff the rice and set aside for cooling.

• For wrapping, use a wet towel to mop the bean curd sheet. Put 2-3 tablespoons of cooked glutinous rice on the sheet and roll in 1.5 rounds as if you are rolling sushi. Seal the edges with some plain flour batter or water. Steamed the glutinous rice roll for 15 minutes under high heat.

• Once it cooled down, pan fried the steamed rice rolls in a stir frying pan until the surrounding bean curd sheets are golden brown. Drained and let it cooled completely before cutting into small pieces. For serving, cut the rice cake into small pieces and pan fried until both sides are golden brown and crispy. Best served with sweet dark soya sauce or chilli sauce if preferred.

Note：

• You can also steamed, cooled, cut and pan fried .

CONCLUSION

As a blogger who are extremely passionate about traditional cuisines, I have tried my best to substantiate the recipe that I issued. I hope via the above Chinese definition and description, more readers will try this Chinese version of guan jian. It may not be the type that you have eaten but  I am happy that it taste very good. Since I do not have any sweet dark soya sauce or sweet sauce with me, I have served with homemade chilli sauce.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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